Tender
by justblossom
Summary: Risa and Otani's dates seem fated to end (or even begin) in disaster. Risa has a small accident, Otani gets a big scare... but what's life without a little of the unexpected to keep things interesting? Koizumi/Otani fluff. Oneshot.


A/N: I never expected I'd be posting so much LoveCom fic, but here we are. I guess I'll never get over my soft spot for Risa/Otani. I wrote this ages ago for the prompt words "tender" and "cursed", and lately figured why the heck not post it in case someone out there gets some enjoyment from it.

Set a year or two after the end of the manga.

 _Tender_

Otani watched the disaster unfold as if in slow motion with a mixture of dubiety and horror.

Risa had been biking towards him, waving a hand and grinning widely, nothing but a few yards of sidewalk concrete between them, and then— a dog, off its leash, darted right in front of her wheel. One-handed, she yanked the handlebar to the side, barely avoiding collision…

And promptly lost her balance and hit the ground with a sickening thud. When the bike landed on top of her with a clatter, Otani was already running towards her.

"Koizumi!"

Even before he arrived at her side, panting, she'd managed to twist around and was attempting to push the bike off of herself.

"Hold up," he ordered crossly. "You'll just make things worse."

She looked up at him then— her hair was wild, her eyes slightly teary, cheeks pink, and— there was a trail of blood oozing from her forehead!

Some strange sound came out of his throat, involuntarily. He grabbed the bike and tossed it aside, crouched down in front of her and cupped her chin in his hand.

"Koizumi!"

She stared into his eyes, and blinked twice, uncomprehendingly. "What is it?"

"You— where does it hurt? Are you okay? Can you see me? Is your—"

"Falling off a bike doesn't hurt your eyes," she said, and rolled hers. "I'm fine, really, just my ankle's a little sore."

"Your _ankle?"_ he demanded, incredulous. What about the gaping wound on her forehead?! Was she so much of an idiot that she didn't even…

Wait, did this mean she couldn't feel it? Was that good or bad? Was she going into shock?!

"What's with you, looking all panicked?" Risa asked. Not that she didn't appreciate the incredibly rare display of concern for her well-being, but this was getting a little odd. First off, Otani had yet to drop his hand from her face, blushing and glaring and mumbling some excuse to the ground as was custom. And second off, he looked downright terrified, pale and wide-eyed, not meeting her eyes but gazing just above them, at her—

Oh. She reached up a hand and swiped it across her forehead. It came away sticky, warm and wet with blood. She looked at it, Otani looked at it, and their eyes met, mutual horror and panic reflected— but then Risa noticed something else that was on her hand, and the pieces fell into place.

She probed again at her forehead, and found the source of the bleeding: a shallow, thin scrape tracing just below her hairline. Then she looked at the back of her hand, at the sharp-edged ring that glinted there, crimson glistening off of the corners.

"False alarm!" she said cheerily. "I didn't crack my head open, my ring just scraped against it, that's all."

Otani stared for a moment, his gaze darting from her forehead to her hand and back, and then he dropped his hand from her face and leaned back on his haunches, looking away.

"Yeesh," he grumbled finally. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Old man," Risa scoffed. He glared back, and then she smiled.

"Anyway, I'm fine, so let's go." She pushed herself to her knees, and then feet.

"You should still get that banda— woah!"

Upon taking a step forward, Risa's ankle gave out and she plunged straight into Otani, who barely managed to get his arms around her in time to stop her fall. As it was, they nearly ended up back on the pavement.

"What happened to 'I'm fine'?" Otani demanded. Risa gave him a half-smile, half-grimace.

"Ow," was all she squeaked out. He frowned and crouched down, letting her balance on one foot by keeping a hand on his shoulder. Her right ankle was red and seemed to be swelling already. He'd seen enough ankle injuries as a basketball captain to know that it wasn't broken, but she still wouldn't be able to walk on it.

He chewed his lower lip, then stood, grabbing her waist to keep her steady.

"It's sprained," he told her. "You'd better keep off of it."

She nodded glumly, then looked at the fallen bike, and its noticeable lack of a passenger seat. "...How are we gonna…?"

Five minutes and a lot of finagling later, they'd managed to get Risa on the bike, her feet propped up on the axle to keep them out of the way of the pedals. Otani walked beside her, one hand on the handlebars and the other at her back, pushing the bike along.

"Sorry," she said glumly, head hanging. "It feels like every time we go out together, something goes wrong."

"Maybe the universe is trying to send us a message," Otani quipped.

Risa's head jerked up to shoot him a glare. But just as quickly, her expression drooped back down into misery. "Maybe you're right… Maybe it's bad luck to hang around me… I'm probably cursed or something."

"Probably," Otani said, expression nonchalant.

Risa shot him another look. "...doesn't it bother you?"

"Well, it's been what? Three years? And this supposed curse of yours hasn't rubbed off on me yet. So I'm not too worried."

She snorted. "Things like these always get you when you least expect it, you know."

"I'm not the type who gets caught unaware," Otani scoffed.

"Ha! Then what about the time Nakao hit you in the head with a basketball during the pep rally? Or when Nobu tripped you down the stairs? _Oooor,"_ she tapped her chin in mock consideration. "Just last week, when you walked straight into the glass door at the diner. That one definitely took you by surprise."

Otani pushed the bike a bit faster. "Hm, I guess you were right all along… maybe your curse really has rubbed off on me."

She stuck out her tongue. "See?"

"Oh, well."

"What do you mean, 'Oh, well'?" she demanded.

"It's too late now. I guess I'm stuck with you."

Risa blinked, then a slow smile spread across her face— and Otani froze as he realized the mortifying cheesiness of what he'd just said.

"Ah, forget it!" he said gruffly, cursing the blush that rose to his face. He stared pointedly ahead, refusing to let his eyes slip across to get a glimpse of her expression…

It was a lost cause.

Risa was still smiling like she'd just won the lottery. He sighed internally, but… well, worse things could happen. Looking at her grin, it was almost impossible not to feel the urge to smile himself.

So he did.

FIN


End file.
